1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a roller drum and split drum segments of a soil compacting machine. More particularly, the present invention relates to a roller drum, around the outer circumference of which, another roller drum for carrying out another compacting job can be detachably mounted thereto. Even more particularly, the present invention concerns a roller drum of the type described for carrying out a plurality of different compacting operations by using only one kind of compacting machine.
2. Prior Art
Generally, compacting apparatus or machines, which reduce the extent of porosity between particles in a soil by rotating rollers, are used to increase the supporting force of the soil or a material layer constituting a road or the like. Naturally, some different compacting effects would be performed if a surface configuration of a roller drum can be, optionally, altered.
In the conventional compacting machine of the type under consideration herein, different types of roller drums are employed for different compacting effects. For instance, there is a flat-type roller having a flat and smooth outer circumference as well as a tamping roller having on its outer circumference a large number of fixed tamper feet, depending upon the intended purposes of the tamping operation, as well as the nature of soil or soils to be compacted for densification.
However, conventional compacting machines of such kind have required, in each instance, replacing the roller drum attached to the machine with another one. Each roller drum is prepared as a roller drum assembly. This requires detaching the pipings for the oil hydraulic motor for travelling and another oil hydraulic motor for causing vibration and, then, re-assembling them. This requires a considerable amount of replacement work and the accompanying large amount of man-hours but, also, troubles are liable to occur in the connection of piping joints, which may degrade the reliability of the oil pressure means.
In addition, this kind of replacement requires taking care of the roller drum assembly which has been disassembled and removed from the machine so that it does not become rusted or gather dust. This is troublesome maintenance for the unused assembly and requires somewhat high grade of working environment for the drum replacing operation. This invention has been made in view of the drawbacks mentioned above.